A week ago an uncle of mine one who loves the great outdoors equally as well as I and myself took a trip through Union and Alexander Counties Indian relic hunting. This section of Illinois is known as Egypt, a name that was applied to this section several years ago during a corn famine in Central and Northern Illinois when those corn and other grain raisers had to call on their Southern Illinois neighbors for grain to feed their famished stock. This section from Centralia south is also famous for its fine quality fruits. Thousands of acres devoted to this industry alone.
The Illinois Ozarks also was a paradise for the red man, excellent hunting, fishing in its many beautiful streams and scenery seldom surpassed anywhere. There the Indian lived a life of happiness and leisure for his food and clothing was to be had for the mere taking, and a pleasurable task at that. We have records as far back as the 17th century of a large band of Sioux living in the Southern tip of Illinois also there are mounds standing as memorials to the Osage who inhabitated the southwestern tip and countless other tribes used it as a hunting and vacation country just as modern nimrods do to this day.
But to get on with the story. We drove down to what was once a great hunting ground bordering a lake and presumably, once the mighty father of waters here we spent an entire day looking over the site and finding quite a few beautiful points. We also was privileged to view a large collection picked up on this same site twenty years ago that has some rare pieces. Tired from all day tramping we were delightfully entertained by a family of pioneer settlers with their antique stringed instruments and typical Southern Illinois hospitality. From here we drove back up in the hills and spent the night with some boyhood acquaintances, starting early in the morning and it was a beautiful sunrise. We drove west to explore some mounds that I have visited several times before. On our way we stopped at an old Indian chipping yard where tons of flint have been chipped into weapons and ornaments. Last year we visited the site where this flint was mined about three miles distant. This same Union County flint can be picked up over a wide area in the finished product.
Back to the story we arrived at the place in some of the highest of the Ill. Ozarks, went over and talked to the owner as is always my custom, and 'believe me it pays' for I have received lots of interesting information this way. Having his permission we proceeded to the spot arriving we found that there had been quite a few evacuations made since we last visited the place. We proged around a bit and decided to dig in a certain spot. In a few licks we struck burial stones and upon removing them found in the corner a stone vault two vases or pots. One painted red with a small neck or opening. The other one almost black with a wide mouth or opening. One possibly for food, the other for drink for the departed. Removing some of the dirt or silt we discovered human bones and farther digging revealed two skeletons buried together, one head one way, the other just opposite. One, the larger, was almost perfectly preserved and must have been aged having only four teeth, two above and two below. The jawbone was just as smooth as if there were never but the four. They certainly had been out a long time before death. The skull also carried an indentation where it had probably been struck by an arrow, starting over the left eye and extending for about three inches upwards, probably indicating a severe scalp wound, but not sufficient to cause death. The grave was lined with slab rock about an inch or more in thickness and different widths being covered with two about 3 1/2 feet wide. We later discovered where the stones were carried from. Sixty feet above this spot and on the pinnacle was a built mound probably twelve feet high and thirty feet around at the base where three bodies were buried standing up. The other graves or tombs were around this center mound in a circle. At the base of this hill is a lake or rather a chain of lakes, where from all indications, the Mississippi flowed at one time.
We felt that with our experiences and the grandeur of the surroundings we were well paid for our efforts. And plan to explore again in the near future.
Yours,
A Nature Lover

Note: The uncle referred to in the first paragraph was William Logan Thompson, who lived his entire life in and near Elco. The mounds that he had visited several times before, still exists and one of them is under a very old barn. The "old Indian chipping yard," borders the property of Bobbie and Louise Thompson, which is just north and east of State Highway 127 at the north boundary of Alexander County and the south boundary of Union County, or about three miles north, northeast of the Sims Cemetery. Indian Mound excavation would be illegal now, but was not in the 1930s.